LEWISTON – A Bates College student was among five Maine college students to receive the Maine Campus Compact’s 2003 Student Heart and Soul Award. Stephanie Bisol, Travis Martay Brennan, Caroline Coffey, Jennifer Daicy and Joey Werner were selected on the basis of outstanding contributions in community service and service-learning.

The compact also awarded the Donald Harward Award for Service-Learning Excellence to three faculty members.

Mellisa A. Clawson, assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Maine at Farmington, Sue N. Kelly, associate professor of physical education at Saint Joseph’s College, and Barbara Rich, associate professor of social work at the University of Southern Maine, were recognized for their accomplishments in service-learning, an instructional method in which students learn through involvement in service that meets a community need.

Caroline Coffey, a Bates College senior from Kennebunk, coordinates the matching of Bates student mentors with children at Longley Elementary School in Lewiston. In addition, through the Jason Program she has provided hospice care for terminally ill children and respite care for their families.

Clawson engaged her students in a research project focused on teen parenting. Through meetings with teenage mothers in the Farmington area, Clawson’s students identified a need for low-cost clothing for mothers and children. Working with staff at a residential facility for teen mothers, Clawson’s students constructed the Family Store, a second-hand store in the basement of the facility.

Students in Kelly’s “Physical Education Teaching Methods” course at Saint Joseph’s College partnered with Windham High School, teaching high schoolers in an advanced physical education course. In a multi-layered approach to service-learning, the Windham students then developed lesson plans and taught the skills they had learned to middle school students.

Rich created the Lifebook Project. Through the Maine Department of Human Services, Rich’s students were matched with foster children to create lifebooks, compilations of memorabilia, photographs and other art designed to help the children reclaim their pasts. Rich’s project has since been replicated by other social service agencies.

For more information, contact Carla Ganiel of Maine Campus Compact at 207-786-8392.

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